Listed 100 (total found 211) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "LACONIA Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
GEROLIMENAS (Village) ITYLO
LACONIA (Prefecture) PELOPONNISOS
MEGALI AMMOS (Seaside settlement) ZARAKAS
It is the settlement of the Kyparissi port.
AFRODISSIAS (Ancient city) VOION
Aphrodisias, a town in the S. of Laconia, on the Boeatic gulf, said to have been founded by Aeneas. (Paus. iii. 12. § 11, viii. 12. § 8.)
AKRIES (Ancient city) ELOS
Akriai, Akreia, Akreia: Eth. Akriates. A town of Laconia, on the eastern
side of the Laconian bay, 30 stadia S. of Helos. Strabo describes the Eurotas
as flowing into the sea between Acriae and Gythium. Acriae possessed a sanctuary
and a statue of the mother of the gods, which was said by the inhabitants of the
town to be the most ancient in the Peloponnesus. Leake was unable to discover
any remains of Acriae; the French expedition place its ruins at the harbour of
Kokinio.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ASSINI (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Eth. Asinaios, Asineus. An Asine in Laconia is mentioned by Strabo
(viii. p. 363) as situated between Amathus (a false reading for Psamathus) and
Gythium; and Stephanus B. (s. v.) speaks of a Laconian as well as of a Messenian
Asine. Polybius (v. 19) likewise relates that Philip, in his invasion of Laconia,
suffered a repulse before Asine, which appears from his narrative to have been
near Gythium. But notwithstanding these authorities, it may be questioned whether
there was a town of the name of Asine in Laconia. Pausanias, in describing the
same event as Polybius, says that Philip was repulsed before Las, which originally
stood on the summit of Mt. Asia. (Paus. iii. 24. § 6.) There can therefore be
no doubt that the Las of Pausanias and the Asine of Polybius are the same place;
and the resemblance between the names Asia and Asine probably led Polybius into
the error of calling Las by the latter name; an error which was the more likely
to arise, because Herodotus and Thucydides speak of the Messenian Asine as a town
in Laconia, since Messenia formed a part of Laconia at the time when they wrote.
The error of Polybius was perpetuated by Strabo and Stephanus, and has found its
way into most modern works.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ASSOPOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
Asopus, Asopos. A town of the Eleuthero-Lacones in Laconia, on the eastern
side of the Laconian gulf, and 60 stadia south of Acriae. It possessed a temple
of the Roman emperors, and on the citadel a temple of Athena Cyparissia. At the
distance of 12 stadia above the town there was a temple of Aselepius. Strabo speaks
of Cyparissia and Asopus as two separate places; but it appears that Asopus was
the later name of Cyparissia. Pausanias says that at the foot of the acropolis
of Asopus were the ruins of the city of the Achaei Paracyparissii. Strabo describes
Cyparissia as a town with a harbour, situated upon a chersonese, which corresponds
to the site of Blitra. The latter is on the high rocky peninsula of Kavo Xyli,
east of which there is a deep inlet of the sea and a good harbour. The acropolis
of Cyparissia or Asopus must have occupied the summit of Kavo Xyli.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EGIES (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Aegaeae (Aighiai, Paus. iii. 21. § 5; Haigaial, Strab. p. 364: Limni).
A town of Laconia, at the distance of 30 stadia from Gythium, supposed to be the
same as the Homeric Augeiae. (Angelhai, Il. ii. 583; comp. Steph. B. s. v.) It
possessed a temple and lake of Neptune. Its site is placed by the French Commission
at Limni, so called from an extensive marsh in the valley of the eastern branch
of the river of Passava.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EGILA (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
EGYS (Ancient city) PELANA
Aigns: Eth. Aignhates, (Paus.); Aignen (Theopomp. ap. Steph. B. s.
v.) A town of Laconia, on the frontiers of Arcadia, originally belonged to the
Arcadians, but was conquered at an early period by Charilaus, the reputed nephew
of Lycurgus, and annexed to Laconia. Its territory, called Aegetis (Aientis),
appears to have been originally of some extent, and to have included all the villages
in the districts of Maleatis and Cromitis. Even at the time of the foundation
of Megalopolis, the inhabitants of these Arcadian districts, comprising Scirtonium,
Malea, Cromi, Belbina, and Leuctrum, continued to be called Aegytae. The position
of Aegys is uncertain. Leake places it at Kamara, near the sources of the river
Xerilo, the ancient Carnion.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ELAFONISSOS (Island) PELOPONNISOS
Onugnathus (Onou gnathos), the jaw of an ass, the name of a peninsula
and promontory in the south of Laconia, distant 200 stadia south of Asopus. It
is now entirely surrounded with water, and is called Elafonisi; but it is in reality
a peninsula, for the isthmus, by which it is connected with the mainland, is only
barely covered with water. It contains a harbour, which Strabo mentions; and Pausanias
saw a temple of Athena in ruins, and the sepulchre of Cinadus, the steersman of
Menelaus. (Paus. iii. 22. § 10, iii. 23. § 1; Strab. viii. pp. 363, 364; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 295.)
ELOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
A town of Laconia, situated east of the mouth of the Eurotas, close
to the sea, in a plain which, though marshy near the coast, is described by Polybius
as the most fertile part of Laconia. (Polyb. v. 19.) In the earliest times it
appears to have been the chief town on the coast, as Amyclae was in the interior;
for these two places are mentioned together by Homer (Il. ii. 584, Hymn. in Apoll.
410). Helos is said to have been founded by Heleius, the youngest son of Perseus.
On its conquest by the Dorians its inhabitants were reduced to slavery; and, according
to a common opinion in antiquity, their name became the general designation of
the Spartan bondsmen, but the name of these slaves (heilotes) probably signified
captives, and was derived from the root of helein. (Pans. iii. 20. § 6: the account
differs a little in Strab. viii. p. 365, and Athen. vi. p. 265, c.) In the time
of Strabo Helos was only a village; and when it was visited by Pausanias, it was
in ruins. (Strab. viii. p. 363; Paus. iii. 22. § 3: Helos is also mentioned by
Thuc. iv. 54; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. § 32; Steph. B. s. v.) Leake conjectures that
Helos may have stood at Priniko, since this place is distant from Trinisa, the
ancient Trinasus, about 80 stadia, which, according to Pausanias, was the distance
between these two places; but we learn from the French Commission that Priniko
contains only ruins of the middle ages, and that there are some Hellenic remains
a little more to the east near Bizani, which is therefore probably the site of
Helos. The name of Helos is still given to the plain of the lower Eurotas.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIDAVROS LIMIRA (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Epidauros n Limera. A town on the eastern coast of Laconia, situated
at the head of a spacious bay, formed by the promontory Kremidhi, on the north,
and the promontory of Monemvasia, on the south. It was a colony from Epidaurus
in Argolis, and is said to have been built in consequence of an intimation from
Asclepius, when an Epidaurian ship touched here on its way to Cos. (Paus. iii.,23.
§ 6.) Its foundation probably belongs to the. time when the whole of the eastern
coast of Laconia, as far as the promontory Malea, acknowledged the supremacy of
Argos. (Herod. i, 82.) The epithet Limera was considered by the best ancient critics
to be given to the town on account of the excellence of its harbours, though other
explanations were proposed of the word (limeran .... hos a limeneran, Strab. viii.).
Pausanias describes the town as situated on a height not far from the sea. He
mentions among its public buildings temples of Aphrodite and Asclepius, a temple
of Athena on the acropolis, and a temple of Zeus Soter in front of the harbour.
(Paus. iii. 23. § 10.) The ruins of Epidaurus are situated at the spot now called
Old Monemvasia. The walls, both of the acropolis and town, are traceable all round;
and in some places, particularly towards the sea, they remain to more than half
their original height. The town formed a sort of semicircle on the southern side
of the citadel. The towers are some of the smallest I have ever seen in Hellenic
fortresses; the faces ten feet, the flanks twelve: the whole circumference of
the place is less than three quarters of a mile. The town was divided into two
separate parts by a wall; thus making, with the citadel, three interior divisions.
On the acropolis there is a level space, which is separated from the remaining
part of it by a little insulated rock, excavated for the foundations of a wall.
I take this platform to have been the position of the temple of Athena. On the
site of the lower town, towards the sea front, there are two terrace walls, one
of which is a perfect specimen of the second order of Hellenic masonry. Upon these
terraces may have stood the temples of Aphrodite and Asclepius. There are, likewise,
some remains of a modern town within the ancient inclosure; namely, houses, churches,
and a tower of the lower ages. The harbour of Zeus Soter has entirely disappeared,
but this is not surprising, as it must have been artificial; but there are two
harbours, one at either extremity of the bay, the northern called that of Kremidhi,
and the southern that of Monemvasia.
South of Epidaurus Pausanias mentions a promontory (akra) extending
into the sea, called Minoa (Paus. iii. 23. § 11; Strab.) This promontory is now
an island, connected with the mainland by a bridge of 14 small arches; it is not
improbable that it was originally part of the mainland, and afterwards separated
from it by art.
Epidaurus is rarely mentioned in history. Its territory was ravaged
by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War. (Thuc. iv. 56, vi. 105.) In the time
of Strabo there appears to have been a fortress on the promontory Minoa, since
he calls it a phrourion. Pausanias mentions Epidaurus Limera as one of the Eleuthero-Laconian
towns. (Paus. iii. 21. § 7.) Ptolemy enumerates, as separate places, Minoa, the
harbour of Zeus Soter, and Epidaurus. In the middle ages the inhabitants of Epidaurus
abandoned their ancient town, and built a new one on Minoa,--which they now, for
greater security, probably, converted for the first time into an island. To their
new town, because it was accessible by only one way, they gave the name of Monemvasia
or Monembasia, which was corrupted by the Franks into Malvasia. In the middle
ages it was the most important Greek town in the Morea, and continued purely Greek
in its language and customs for many centuries.
Leake remarked, about a third of a mile southward of the ruins of
Epidaurus, near the sea, a deep pool of fresh water, surrounded with reeds, about
100 yards long and 30 broad, which he observes is probably the lake of Ino, small
and deep, mentioned by Pausanias (iii. 23. § 8) as 2 stadia from the altars of
Asclepius, erected to commemorate the spot where the sacred serpent disappeared
in the ground, after landing from the Epidaurian ship on its way to Cos.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIDILION (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Epidelion. Called Delium simply by Strabo, a small place on the eastern
coast of Laconia, situated within the territories of Boeae, at the distance of
100 stadia from Cape Malea, and 200 from Epidaurus Limera. Epidelium, however,
appears to have been little more than a sanctuary of Apollo, erected at the time
of the Mithridatic War, when a wooden statue of the god floated to this spot from
Delos, after the devastation of the island by Metrophanes, the general of Mithridates.
Epidelium probably stood on Cape Kamili, where there are a few ancient remains.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ETHEA (Ancient city) LACONIA
Aethaea (Aithaia: Eth. Aithaiens), a town of Messenia of unknown site, the inhabitants of which revolted from Sparta with the Thuriatae in B.C. 464. (Thuc. i. 101; Steph. B. s. v.)
FARAS (Ancient city) THERAPNES
or Pharis, afterwards called Pharae (Phare, Pharis, Pharai). A town
of Laconia in the Spartan plain, situated upon the road from Amyclae to the sea.
(Paus. iii. 20. § 3.) It was mentioned in the Iliad (ii. 582), and was one of
the ancient Achaean towns. It maintained its independence till the reign of Teleclus,
king of Sparta; and, after its conquest, continued to be a Lacedaemonian town
under the name of Pharae. (Paus. iii. 2. § 6.) It was said to have been plundered
by Aristomenes in the Second Messenian War. (Paus. iv. 16. § 8.) It is also mentioned
in a corrupt passage of Strabo (viii. p. 364), and by other ancient writers. (Lycophr.
552; Stat. Theb. iv. 226; Steph. B. s. v. Pharis.)
Pharis has been rightly placed at the deserted village of Bafio, which
lies south of the site of Amyclae, and contains an ancient Treasury, like those
of Mycenae and Orchomenus, which is in accordance with Pharis having been one
of the old Achaean cities before the Dorian conquest. It is surprising that the
French Commission have given no description or drawing of this remarkable monument.
The only account we possess of it, is by Mulre, who observes that it is, like
that of Mycenae, a tumulus, with an interior vault, entered by a door on one side,
the access to which was pierced horizontally through the slope of the hill. Its
situation, on the summit of a knoll, itself of rather conical form, while it increases
the apparent size of the tumulus, adds much to its general loftiness and grandeur
of effect. The roof of the vault, with the greater part of its material, is now
gone, its shape being represented by a round cavity or crater on the summit of
the tumulus. The doorway is still entire. It is 6 feet wide at its upper and narrower
part. The stone lintel is 15 feet in length. The vault itself was probably between
30 and 40 feet in diameter. Mure adds: Menelaus is said to have been buried at
Amyclae. This may, therefore, have been the royal vault of the Spartan branch,
as the Mycenaean monument was of the Argive branch of the Atridan family. But
even if we suppose the monument to have been a sepulchre, and not a treasury,
it stood at the distance of 4 or 5 miles from Amyclae, if this town is placed
at Aghia Kyriaki, and more than 2 miles, even if placed, according to the French
Commission, at Sklavokhori. In addition to this, Menelaus, according to other
accounts, was buried at Therapne. (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 246; Leake,
Morea, vol. iii. p. 3, Peloponnesiaca, p. 354; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii.
p. 248.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
GERONTHRES (Ancient city) LACONIA
Geranthrae (Geronthrai, Paus. iii. 21. § 7, 22. § 6; Geranthrai, Paus.
iii. 2. § 6; Steph. B. s. v.; Gerenthrai, Hierocl. 392, 14: Eth. Geronthretes).
An ancient town of Laconia, situated in a commanding position upon the south-westrern
face of the mountain above the plain of the Eurotas. It is represented by Gheraki,
a ruined town of the middle ages, the name of which is a corruption of Geronthrae,
while its distance from the site of Acriae upon the coast corresponds to the 120
stadia mentioned by Pausanias. We learn from the same writer that Geronthrae possessed
a temple and grove of Ares, to whom a yearly festival was celebrated, from which
women were excluded. Around the agora there were fountains of potable water. On
the acropolis stood a temple of Apollo. (Paus. iii. 22. § § 6, 7; stala petrina
en to hiero to tou Atollonos, Bockh, Inscr. no. 1334.) On the northern side of
the summit of the citadel are the remains of a very ancient wall: the position
of the agora is indicated by the fountains of water lower down the hill.
Geronthrae was one of the ancient Achaean cities which resisted for
a long time the Dorian conquerors. It was at length taken and colonised by the
Spartans, along with Amyclae and Pharis. In the time of the Roman empire it belonged
to the Eleuthero-Lacones. (Paus. iii. 2. § 6, 21. § 7, 22. § 6.) At the beginning
of the fourth century of the Christian era it must have been a market-town of
some importance, since a Greek translation of the edict of Diocletian, De Pretiis
Rerum Venalium, has been discovered at Gheraki. In the middle ages it was the
seat of a bishopric, and one of the most important places in the valley of the
Eurotas.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
GYTHION (Ancient city) LACONIA
Guthion, Gythium, Gutheion, Gytheum, Eth. Gutheates. An ancient Achaean
town in Laconia, situated near the head of the Laconian gulf, south-west of the
mouth of the Eurotas, at the distance of 240 stadia from Sparta according to Strabo,
and 30 Roman miles according to the Table. This distance agrees with the 43 kilometres
which the French commission found to be the distance by the road from the ruins
of Gythium to the theatre of Sparta. In Polybius Gythium is said to be 30 stadia
from Sparta; but this number is evidently corrupt. and for peri triakonta we ought
to read with Muller peri triakosia. (Polyb. v. 19.) Gythium stood upon the small
stream Gythius (Mela, ii. 3), in a fertile and well-cultivated plain. (Polyb.
v. 19.) Its cheeses are celebrated in one of Lucian's dialogues. (Dial. Meretsr.
14.) After the Dorian conquest it became the chief maritime town in Laconia, and
was therefore regarded as the port of Sparta. It was also the ordinary station
of their ships of war. Accordingly, when war broke out between Athens and Sparta,
Gythium was one of the first places which the Athenians attacked with their superior
fleet; and in B.C. 455 it was burnt by Tolmidas, the Athenian commander. (Thuc.
i. 102; Diod. xi. 84.) On the invasion of Laconia by Epaminondas in B.C. 370,
after the battle of Leuctra, he advanced as far south as Gythium, but was unable
to take it, though he laid siege to it for three days. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 32)
Even then it must have been well fortified, but its fortifications appear to have
been still further increased by the tyrant Nabis; and when it was taken by the
Romans in 195 it is described by Livy as valida urbs, et multitudine civium incolarumque
et omni bellico apparatu instructa (xxxiv. 29). Augustus made it one of the Eleuthero-Laconian
towns; and under the Roman empire it again became a place of importance, as is
shown by its ruins, which belong almost exclusively to the Roman period. Its port,
according to the information received by Strabo, was artificial (echei d, hos
phasi, to naustathmon orukton, Strab. viii).
Pausanias saw in the market-place of Gythium statues of Apollo and
Hercules, who were reputed to be the founders of the city; near them a statue
of Dionysus; and on the other side of the market-place a statue of Apollo Carneius,
a temple of Ammon, a brazen statue of Asclepius, the temple of which had no roof,
a fountain sacred to this god, a sanctuary of Demeter, and a statue of Poseidon
Gaeaochus. A fountain still flowing between the shore and the Acropolis seems
to have been the above-mentioned fountain of Asclepius, and thus indicates the
site of the Agora. On the Acropolis was a temple of Athena; and the gates of Castor
mentioned by Pausanias appear to have led from the lower city to the citadel.
(Paus. iii. 21. § § 8, 9.) Opposite Gythium was the island Crania, whither Paris
was said to have carried off Helen from Sparta.
The coast on the mainland south of Gythium was said to have derived
its name of Migonium (Milonion from the union of Paris and Helen on the opposite
island. On this coast was a temple of Aphrodite Migonitis. and above it a mountain
sacred to Dionysus called Larysium (Larusion), where a festival was celebrated
to this god in the beginning of spring. (Paus. iii. 22. § 1.) Pausanias further
describes, at the distance of three stadia from Gythium, a stone on which Orestes
is said to have been relieved from his madness. This stone was called Zeus (according
to Sylburg, leus) kappotas, i. e. katapautes, the Reliever. The town Marathonisi,
which was built at the beginning of the present century, and is the chief port
of the district Mani, occupies the site of Migonium; and the hill above it, called
Kumaro, is the ancient Larysium. The remains of Gythium, called Paleopoli, are
situated a little north of Marathonisi. They lie upon the slope of some small
hills, and in the plain between them and the sea. These remains, which are considerable,
belong chiefly to the Roman period, as has been already stated. Near the edge
of the shore are the remains of two large buildings, probably Roman baths, consisting
of several small rooms and divisions. The foundations of buildings may also be
seen under water. Ninety yards inland from the shore, on the slope of the larger
hill, are the remains of the theatre, built of white marble. Some of the marble
seats still remain in their places, but most of them have disappeared, as the
space enclosed by the theatre has been converted into a vineyard. The diameter
appears to have been about 150 feet. From 50 to 100 feet from the theatre, in
a slight hollow between the hills, are the ruins of a Roman building of considerable
size. The Acropolis was on the top of the hill above the theatre, but of its walls
there are only a few fragments. All round the town, and especially on the hills,
are twenty or thirty ruins of small buildings of tiles and mortar, in the Roman
style, containing niches in the walls. These were Roman sepulchres: one of them
was excavated by Ross, who found there some sepulchral lamps.
On the left of the road from Paleodpoli to Marathonisi is an inscription
on the rock, which has not yet been deciphered; and close to it, hewn in the rock,
is a chair with a foot-step, which appears to be the spot where Orestes was said
to have been relieved from his madness. Most of the inscriptions found at Palepoli
are of the Roman period.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
IPPOLA (Ancient city) ITYLO
Eth. Hippolaites, fern Hippolaitis. A town of Laconia, a little north-west
of the promontory of Taenarum, in ruins in the time of Pausanias. It contained
a temple of Athena Hippolaitis. It stood either at Kipula, which is apparently
a corruption of the ancient name, or at the ruins called kastron tes horaias on
the highest point of the peninsula of Kavo Grosso.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ITI (Ancient city) VOION
Etis (Etls), a town in the S. of Laconia, the inhabitants of which
were removed to Boeae. (Paus. iii. 22. § 11; Steph. B. s. v.)
ITYLOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
Oitulos, Beitulos, Bitula, (kaleitai d hupo tinon Beitulos, Strab.
viii). A town of Laconia on the eastern side of the Messenian gulf, represented
by the modern town of Vitylo, which has borrowed its name from it. Pausanias says
that it was 80 stadia from Thalamae and 150 from Messa; the latter distance is
too great, but there is no doubt of the identity of Oetylus and Vitylo; and it
appears that Pausanias made a mistake in the names, as the distance between Oetylus
and Caenepolis is 150 stadia. Oetylus is mentioned by Homer, and was at a later
time one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns. It was still governed by its ephors
in the third century of the Christian era. Pausanias saw at Oetylus a temple of
Sarapis, and a wooden statue of Apollo Carneius in the agora. Among the modern
houses of Vitylo there are remains of Hellenic walls, and in the church a beautiful
fluted Ionic column supporting a beam at one end of the aisle, and three or four
Ionic capitals in the wall of the church, probably the remains of the temple of
Sarapis.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KARYES (Ancient city) LAKEDEMONA
Karuai: Eth. Karuates. A town of Laconia upon the frontiers of Arcadia.
It was originally an Arcadian town belonging to Tegea, but was conquered by the
Spartans and annexed to their territory. (Phot. Lex. s. v. Karuateia;; Paus. viii.
45. § 1.) Caryae revolted from Sparta after the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371),
and offered to guide a Theban army into Laconia; but shortly afterwards it was
severely punished for its treachery, for Archidamus took the town and put to death
all the inhabitants who were made prisoners. (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 24--27, vii. 1.
§ 28.) Caryae was celebrated for its temple of Artemis Caryatis, and for the annual
festival of this goddess, at which the Lacedaemonian virgins used to perform a
peculiar kind of dance. (Paus. iii. 10. § 9 ; Lucian. de Salt. 10.) This festival
was of great antiquity, for in the second Messenian war, Aristomenes is said to
have carried off the Lacedaemonian virgins, who were dancing at Caryae in honour
of Artemis. (Paus. iv. 16. § 9.) It was, perhaps, from this ancient dance of the
Lacedaemonian maidens, that the Greek artists gave the name of Caryatides to the
female figures which were employed in architecture instead of pillars. The tale
of Vitruvius respecting the origin of these figures, is not entitled to any credit.
He relates (i. 1. § 5) that Caryae revolted to the Persians after the battle of
Thermopylae; that it was in consequence destroyed by the allied Greeks, who killed
the men and led the women into captivity; and that to commemorate the disgrace
of the latter, representations of them were employed in ar. chitecture instead
of columns.
The exact position of Caryae has given rise to dispute. It is evident
from the account of Pausanias (iii. 10. § 7), and from the history of more than
one campaign that it was situated on the road from Tegea to Sparta. (Thuc.v. 55;
Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 25, 27 ; Liv. xxxiv. 26.) If it was on the direct road from
Tegea to Sparta, it must be placed, with Leake, at the Khan of Krevata: but we
are more inclined to adopt the opinion of Boblaye and Ross, that it stood on one
of the side roads from Tegea to Sparta. Ross places it NW. of the Khan of Krevata,
in a valley of a tributary of the Oenus, where there is an insulated hill with
ancient ruins, about an hour to the right or west of the village of Arakhova.
Although the road from Tegea to Sparta is longer by way of Arakhova, it was, probably,
often adopted in war in preference to the direct road, in order to avoid the defiles
of Klisura, and to obtain for an encampment a good supply of water. Boblaye remarks,
that there are springs of excellent water in the neighbourhood of Aralkhova, to
which Lycophron, probably, alludes (Karikon or Karukon poton, Lycophr. 149).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KARYSTOS (Ancient city) PELANA
Karustos: Eth. Karustios. A town in Laconia, in the district Aegytis, near the
frontiers of Laconia. Its wine was celebrated by the poet Alcman. Leake supposes
that Carystus stood at the Kalyvia of Ghiorghitzi.
KENI POLIS (Ancient city) ITYLO
At the distance of 40 stadia, or 5 English miles, north of the isthmus
of the Taenarian peninsula, was the town Taenabum or Taenaus, subsequently called
Caenepolis (Kainepolis, Paus. iii. 25. § 9; Kaine, Ptol. iii. 16. § 9; Plin. iv.
15. s. 16; Steph. B. s. v. Tainaros; the same town is probably mentioned by Strab.
viii. p. 360, under the corrupt form Kinaidion.) It contained a temple of Demeter
and another of Aphrodite, the latter near the sea. The modern village of Kyparisso
stands on the site of this town. Some ancient remains and inscriptions of the
time of the Antonines and their successors have been found here. On the door-posts
of a small ruined church are two inscribed quadrangular stelai, decorated with
mouldings above and below. One of the inscriptions is a decree of the Taenarii,
and the other is by the community of the Eleuthero-Lacones (to koinon ton Eleutherolakonon).
We have the testimony of Pausanias (iii. 21. § 7) that Caenepolis was one of the
Eleuthero-Laconian cities; and it would appear from the above-mentioned inscription
that the maritime Laconians, when they were delivered from the Spartan yoke, formed
a confederation and founded as their capital a city in the neighbourhood of the
revered sanctuary of Poseidon. The place was called the New Town (Caenepolis);
but, as we learn from the inscriptions, it continued to be also called by its
ancient name.
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KOTYRTA (Ancient city) ASSOPOS
Koturta: Eth. Koturtaios. A town in the S. of Laconia, near the promontory Malea,
which was garrisoned by the Lacedaemonians, along with Aphrodisias, in the Peloponnesian
War, in order to protect this part of the coast from the ravages of the Athenians,
who had established themselves at Cythera.
KRANAI (Island) GYTHIO
Cranae (Kranae), an island in the Laconian gulf, opposite Gytheium,
whither Paris carried off Helen from Sparta. This little island, now called Marathonisi,
is described by a modern traveller as low and flat, and at the distance of only
100 yards from the shore. The ruined foundation of a temple supports at present
a Greek chapel. (Hom. Il. iii. 442; Paus. iii. 22. § 1; Walpole's Memoirs, vol.
i. p. 58.)
KROKEES (Ancient city) LACONIA
Krokeai: Eth. Krokeates. A village of Laconia on the road from Sparta
to Gythium, and near the latter place, celebrated for its marble quarries. Pausanias
describes the marble as difficult to work, but when wrought forming beautiful
decorations for temples, baths, and fountains. There was a marble statue of Zeus
Croceates before the village, and at the quarries bronze statues of the Dioscuri.
(Paus. iii. 21. § 4.) The most celebrated of the Corinthian baths was adorned
with marble from the quarries at Croceae. (Paus. ii. 3. § 5.) These quarries have
been discovered by the French Commission two miles SE. of Levetzova; and near
the village have been found some blocks of marble, probably the remains of the
statue of Zeus Croceates. A memorial of the worship of the Dioscuri at this place
still exists in a bas-relief, representing the two gods with their horses: beneath
is a Latin inscription. The marble in these quarries is green porphyry; and though
not suitable for Grecian temples, it would be greatly prized by the Romans, who
employed extensively variegated kinds of marble for the decoration of their buildings.
Hence it is probable that the marble celebrated by the Romans under the name of
Laconian was this green porphyry from Croceae; and that it was the quarries of
this place which, Strabo says were opened by the Romans at Taygetus.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KYFAS (Ancient city) ZARAKAS
ta Kuphanta. A town on the eastern coast of Laconia, belonging to
the Eleuthero-Lacones. It was in ruins in the time of Pausanias, but from the
notice of it in other writers, it was evidently at one period a place of some
importance. Pausanias describes it as situated 6 stadia from Zarax, and 10 stadia
inland; and Ptolemy speaks separately of the porttown and city. Pausanias adds
that Cyphanta contained a temple of Asclepius, called Stethaeum, and a fountain
issuing from a rock, said to have been produced by a blow of the lance of Atalante.
The numbers in Pausanias, however, cannot be correct. At the distance of 6 stadia
from Zarax (Hieraka), there is no site for a town or a harbour; and it is scarcely
conceivable that, on this rocky and little-frequented coast, there would be two
towns so close to one another. Moreover Pausanias says that the distance from
Prasiae to Cyphanta is 200 stadia; whereas the real distance from Prasiae (Tyro)
to Zarax (Hieraka) is more than 300 stadia. In addition to this Ptolemy places
Cyphanta considerably further north than Zarax; and it is not till reaching Cyparissi
that there is any place with a harbour and a fountain. Accordingly, we may here
place Cyphanta, changing with Boblaye the very improbable number in Pausanias
hex pou stadia, into hekaton stadia. Cyparissi is as nearly as possible 100 stadia
from Hieraka, and 200 stadia from Tyro.
In his Morea, Leake placed Cyphanta at Cyparissi; but in his Peloponnesiaca,
he supposes its site to have been further north at Lenidhi. If we are right in
identifying Prasiae with Tyro, this position for Cyphanta would be at once inadmissible;
but Leake, we think erroneously, places Prasiae also further north, at St. Andrew
in the Cynuria.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KYPARISSIA (Ancient city) ASSOPOS
Kuparissia, Kuparisseeis, Kuparissiai, Kuparissai, Kuparissos, Eth.
Kuparissieus. (Stephanus alone has the form Kuparisseus). A town on the western
coast of Messenia, situated a little south of the river Cyparissus, upon the bay
to which it gave the name of the Cyparissian gulf. (Plin. Mela, ll. cc.) This
gulf was 72 miles in circuit according to Pliny, and was bounded by the promontory
of Ichthys on the north, and by that of Cyparissium on the south. Cyparissia was
the only town of importance upon the western coast of Messenia between Pylus and
Triphylia. It is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue (Il. l. c.), and appears to
have been inhabited from the earliest to the latest times. It was beautifully
situated upon the sides of one of the offshoots of the range of mountains, which
run along this part of the Messenian coast. Upon the narrow summit of the rocks
now occupied by a castle built in the middle ages, stood the ancient acropolis.
There is no harbour upon the Messenian coast north of Pylos; but Leake remarks
that the roadstead at Cyparissia seems to be the best on this part of the coast;
and in ancient times the town probably possessed an artificial harbour, since
traces of a mole may still be seen upon the sea-shore. This was probably constructed
on the restoration of Messene by Epaminondas; for it was necessary to provide
the capital of the new state with a port, and no spot was so suitable for this
object as Cyparissia. Hence we find Messene and the harbour Cyparissia mentioned
together by Scylax (p. 16). Pausanias found in the town a temple of Apollo, and
one of Athena Cyparissia. The town continued to coin money down to the time of
Severus. In the middle ages it was called Arkadia, a name which was transferred
from the interior of the peninsula to this place upon the coast. It continued
to bear this name till its destruction by Ibrahim in 1825, and when rebuilt it
resumed its ancient name Cyparissia, by which it is now called. Some remains of
ancient walls may be traced around the modern castle; and below the castle on
the slope of the hill, near the church of St. George, are some fragments of columns.
On the south side of the town, close to the sea-shore, a fine stream rushes out
of the rock and flows into the sea; and a little above is a basin with a spring
of water, near which are some stones belonging to an ancient structure. This is
the ancient fountain sacred to Dionysus, which Pausanias perceived near the entrance
of the city, on the road from Pylus.
Stephanus calls Cyparissia a city of Triphylia, and Strabo (viii.
p. 349) also distinguishes between the Triphylian and Messenian Cyparissia, but
on what authority we do not know.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
LAKEDEMON (Ancient country) PELOPONNISOS
LAS (Ancient city) GYTHIO
La, Eth. Laos. One of the most ancient towns of Laconia, situated
upon the western coast of the Laconian gulf. It is the only town on the coast
mentioned by Scylax between Taenarus and Gythium. Scylax speaks of its port; but,
according to Pausanias, the town itself was distant 10 stadia from the sea, and
40 stadia from Gythium. (Paus. iii. 24. § 6.) In the time of Pausanias the town
lay in a hollow between the three mountains, Asia, Ilium, and Cnacadium; but the
old town stood on the summit of Mt. Asia. The name of Las signified the rock on
which it originally stood. It is mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 585), and is said
to have been destroyed by the Dioscuri, who hence derived the surname of Lapersae.
(Strab. viii.; Steph. B. s. v. La.) There was also a mountain in Laconia called
Lapersa. (Steph. B. s. v. Lapersa.) In the later period it was a place of no importance.
Livy speaks of it as vicus maritimus (xxxviii. 30), and Pausanias mentions the
ruins of the city on Mt. Asia. Before the walls he saw a statue of Hercules, and
a trophy erected over the Macedonians who were a part of Philip's army when he
invaded Laconia; and among the ruins he noticed a statue of Athena Asia. The modern
town was near a fountain called Galaco (Talako), from the milky colour of its
water, and near it was a gymnasium, in which stood an ancient statue of Hermes.
Besides the ruins of the old town on Mt. Asia, there were also buildings on the
two other mountains mentioned above: on Mt. Ilium stood a temple of Dionysus,
and on the summit a temple of Asclepius; and on Mt. Cnacadium a temple of Apollo
Carneius.
Las is spoken of by Polybius (v. 19) and Strabo under the name of
Asine; and hence it has been supposed that some of the fugitives from Asine in
Argolis may have settled at Las, and given their name to the town. But, notwithstanding
the statement of Polybius, from whom Strabo probably copied, we have given reasons
elsewhere for believing that there was no Laconian town called Asine; and that
the mistake probably arose from confounding Asine with Asia, on which Las originally
stood.
Las stood upon the hill of Passava, which is now crowned by the ruins
of a fortress of the middle ages, among which, however, Leake noticed, at the
southern end of the eastern wall, a piece of Hellenic wall, about 50 paces in
length, and two-thirds of the height of the modern wall. It is formed of polygonal
blocks of stone, some four feet long and three broad. The fountain Galaco is the
stream Turkovrysa, which rises between the hill of Passava and the village of
Karvela, the latter being one mile and a half west of Passava.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MESSI (Ancient city) ITYLO
One of the nine cities of Laconia enumerated by Homer, who gives it
the epithet of polutreron, abounding in pigeons (Il. ii. 502). Strabo says that
the position of Messa was unknown, (viii. p. 364); but Pausanias mentions a town
and harbour, named Messa (iii. 25. § 9), which is identified by most modern scholars
with the Homeric town. This Messa, now Mezapo, is situated on the western coast
of Mani, between Hippola and Oetylus; and the cliffs in the neighbourhood are
said to abound in wild pigeons. (Leake, Morea, vol. i. p. 286; Boblaye, Recherches,
&c. p. 91; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 282.) Leake, however, has subsequently
conjectured that Messa corresponds to Mistra in the Spartan plain, partly on account
of its site, and partly because the Messa of Pausanias could never, from its situation,
have been a place of much importance. (Peloponnesiaca, p. 357.) But there does
not appear any sufficient reason for rejecting the identity of the Messa of Pausanias
with the Messe of Homer.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
OINOUS (Ancient city) INOUDAS
Oinous: Eth. Oinountios. A small town in Laconia, celebrated for its
wine, from which the river Oenus, a tributary of the Eurotas, appears to have
derived its name. From its being described by Athenaeus as near Pitane, one of
the divisions of Sparta, it was probably situated near the junction of the Oenus
and the Eurotas. (Steph. B. s. v.; Athen. i. p. 31.) The river Oenus, now called
Kelefina, rises in the watershed of Mt. Parnon, and, after flowing in a general
south-westerly direction, falls into the Eurotas, at the distance of little more
than a mile from Sparta. (Polyb. ii. 65, 66; Liv. xxxiv. 28.) The principal tributary
of the Oenus was the Gorgylus (Gorgulos, Polyb. ii. 66), probably the river of
Vrestena.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PALEA (Ancient city) NIATA
Pleiai. A town of Laconia, mentioned by Livy (xxxv. 27) as the place
where Nabis pitched his camp in B.C. 192, must have been situated in the plain
of Leuce, which lay between Acriae and Asopus. The name of the place occurs in
an inscription (Bockh, Inscr. no. 1444). From its position it would appear to
be the same as the palaia kome of Pausanias (iii. 22. § 6), in which passage Curtius
suggests that we might perhaps read Pleiai koen.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PELLANA (Mycenean settlement) PELANA
he Pellana, ta Pellana, Pellene. A town of Laconia, on the Eurotas,
and on the road from Sparta to Arcadia. It was said to have been the residence
of Tyndareos, when he was expelled from Sparta, and was subsequently the frontier-fortress
of Sparta on the Eurotas, as Sellasia was on the Oenus. Polybius describes it
(iv. 81) as one of the cities of the Laconian Tripolis, the other two being probably
Carystus and Belemina. It had ceased to be a town in the time of Pausanias, but
he noticed there a temple of Asclepius, and two fountains, named Pellanis and
Lanceia. Below Pellana, was the Characoma (Charakoma), a fortification or wall
in the narrow part of the valley; and near the town was the ditch, which according
to the law of Agis, was to separate the lots of the Spartans from those of the
Perioeci. (Plut. Agis, 8) Pausanias says that Pellana was 100 stadia from Belemina;
but he does not specify its distance from Sparta, nor on which bank of the river
it stood. It was probably on the left bank of the river at Mt. Burlia, which is
distant 55 stadia from Sparta, and 100 from Mt. Khelmos, the site of Belemina.
Mt. Burlia has two peaked summits, on each of which stands a chapel; and the bank
of the river, which is only separated from the mountain by a narrow meadow, is
supported for the length of 200 yards by an Hellenic wall. Some copious sources
issue from the foot of the rocks, and from a stream which joins the river at the
southern end of the meadow, where the wall ends. There are still traces of an
aqueduct, which appears to have carried the waters of these fountains to Sparta.
The acropolis of Pellana may have occupied one of the summits of the mountain,
but there are no traces of antiquity in either of the chapels.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PYRRICHOS (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
Purrhichos. A town of Laconia, situated about the centre of the promontory
ending in Cape Taenarum, and distant 40 stadia from the river Scyras. According
to some it derived its name from Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, according to others
from Pyrrhicus, one of the Curetes. Silenus was also said to have been brought
up here. It contained temples of Artemis Astrateia and of Apollo Amazonius,--the
two surnames referring to the tradition that the Amazons did not proceed further
than this place. There was also a well in the agora. The ruins of this town have
been discovered by the French Commission near the village of Kavalo, where they
found the well of which Pausanias speaks, the torso of a female statue, the remains
of baths, and several Roman ruins. Leake observes that the distance of 40 stadia
from the Scyras to Pyrrhichus must be measured, not from the mouth of that river,
as Boblaye proposes, but from near its sources. Augustus made Pyrrhichus one of
the Eleuthero-Laconian towns.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SELLASIA (Ancient city) INOUDAS
Sellasia (Selasia). The latter is perhaps the correct form, and may come from
selas; the name is connected by Hesychius with Artemis Selasia: Eth. Sellasieus,
Selasieus.
A town of Laconia, situated in the valley of the Oenus, on the road
leading from Tegea and Argos, and one of the bulwarks of Sparta against an invading
army. Its distance from Sparta is nowhere mentioned; but from the description
which Polybius gives of the celebrated battle fought in its neighbourhood between
Antigonus and Cleomenes, it is probable that the plain of Krevata was the site
of the battle. We learn from Polybius that this battle took place in a narrow
opening of the vale of the Oenus, between two hills named Evas and Olympus, and
that the river Gorgylus flowed across the plain into the Evenus. South of the
Khan of Krevata is a small plain, the only one in the valley of the Oenus, about
ten minutes in width and a quarter of an hour in length, at the end of which the
rocks again approach so close as barely to leave room for the passage of the river.
The mountain, which bounds this plain on the east, is Olympus, a continuation
of the mountain of Vresthena: it rises very steep on the left bank of the Oenus.
The mountain on the western side is Evas, now Turlaes, which, though not so steep,
is still inaccessible to cavalry. Towards the north the plain is shut in by a
mountain, over which the road leads to Tegea, and towards the south by a still
higher mountain. The Oenus, which flows near the eastern edge of the plain, can
be crossed at any point without difficulty. It receives on its right side a small
brook, the Gorgylus, which descends from a ravine on the northern side of Mt.
Evas. On the summit of the hill, more than 2800 feet above the sea, which shuts
in the plain on the south, and over which the road leads to Sparta, are the ruins
of Sellasia, described below.
The French Commission had previously supposed the plain of Krevata
to be the site of the battle of Sellasia (Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 73); and
the same opinion has been adopted by Curtius. (Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p, 260.)
Leake, however, places Sellasia to the SE., near the monastery of the Forty Saints
(Hagioi Saranta), and supposes the battle to have been fought in the pass to the
eastward of the monastery. The ruins near the Khan of Krevata he maintains to
be those of Caryae. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 529, Peloponnesiaca, p. 341, seq.)
But Ross informs us that in the narrow pass NE. of the monastery of the Forty
Saints there is barely room for a loaded mule to pass; and we know moreover that
Sellasia was situated on the high road from Sparta to Tegea and Argos, which must
have led through the plain of Krevata. (kata ten leophoron, Paus. iii. 10. § 7;
Plut. Cleom. 23; Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 27; Diod. xv. 64; Liv. xxxiv. 28.) On leaving
the plain of Krevata, the road southwards ascends the mountain, and at the distance
of a quarter of an hour leaves a small ruin on the left, called by the peasants
Palaeogula (he Palaiogoula). The remains of the walls are Hellenic, but they are
of very small extent, and the place was probably either a dependency of Sellasia
or one to which the inhabitants of the latter fled for refuge at one of the periods
when their city was destroyed.
The ruins of Sellasia lie 1 1/2 miles beyond Palaeogula upon the summit
of the mountain. The city was about 1 1/2 miles in circumference, as appears from
the foundation of the walls. The latter were from 10 to 11 feet thick, and consist
of irregular but very small stones. The northern and smaller half of the city
was separated by a wall from the southern half, which was on lower ground.
From its position Sellasia was always exposed to the attacks of an
invading army. On the first invasion of Laconia by the Thebans in B.C. 369, Sellasia
was plundered and burnt (Xen. Hell. vi. 5. 27); and because the inhabitants at
that time, together with several others of the Perioeci, went over to the enemy,
the town was again taken and destroyed four years later by the Lacedaemonians
themselves, assisted by some auxiliaries sent by the younger Dionysius. (Xen.
Hell. vii. 4. 12) It suffered the same fate a third time after the defeat of Cleomenes,
as has been already related. It appears to have been never rebuilt, and was in
ruins in the time of Pausanias (iii. 10. § 7).
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SIDI (Ancient city) VOION
A town on the eastern coast of Laconia, a little N. of the promontory Malea. It
was said to have existed before the Dorian conquest, and to have derived its name
from a daughter of Danaus. The inhabitants were removed by the Dorian conquerors
to the neighbouring town of Boeae. It probably occupied the site of the monastery
of St. George, where there is a port.
SKIRITIS (Mountain settlement) LAKEDEMON
Sciritis (he Skiritis: Eth. Skirites, fem. Skiritis), a rugged and
barren mountainous district, in the north of Laconia, between the upper Eurotas
on the west and the Oenus on the east, and extending north of the highest ridge
of the mountains, which were the natural boundary between Laconia and Arcadia.
The name probably expressed the wild and rugged nature of the country, for the
word signified hard and rugged (skiron, skeiron, skleron, Hesych.). It was bounded
by the Maenalians on the north, and by the Parrhasians on the west, and was originally
part of Arcadia, but was conquered at an early period, and its inhabitants reduced
to the condition of Lacedaemonian Perioeci. (Steph. B. s. v. Skiros; Thuc. v.
33.) According to Xenophon they were subjected to Sparta even before the time
of Lycurgus. (De Rep. Lac. c. 12.) They were distinguished above all the other
Perioeci for their bravery; and their contingent, called the Skirites lochos,
600 in number, usually occupied the extreme left of the Lacedaemonian wing. (Thuc.
v. 67, 68.) They were frequently placed in the post of danger, and sometimes remained
with the king as a body of reserve. (Xen. Cyr. iv. 2. 1, Hell. v. 2. § 24, v.
4. § 52; Died. xv. 32.) On the first invasion of Laconia by the Thebans the Sciritae,
together with the Perioeci of Caryae and Sellasia, revolted from Sparta, in consequence
of which their country was subsequently ravaged by the Lacedaemonians. (Xen. Hell.
vii. 24. 1) The only towns in the Sciritis appear to have been Scirus and Oeum
called Ium by Xenophon. The latter is the only place in the district mentioned
in historical times. Scirus may perhaps have been the same as Scirtonium (Skirtonion),
in the district of Aegytis. (Paus. viii. 27. § 4; Steph. B. s. v.)
The road from Sparta to Tegea, which is the same as the present road
from Sparta to Tripolitza, led through the Sciritis. (Leake, Morea, vol. iii.
p. 28; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 75; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 178; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 263.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
Taenarum (Tainaron, Herod. Strab. et alii; he Tainaria akra, Ptol.
iii. 16. § 9), a promontory at the extremity of Laconia, and the most southerly
point of Europe, now called C. Matapan. The name of Taenarum, however, was not
confined to the extreme point bearing the name of Matapan. It has been shown by
Leake that it was the name given to the peninsula of circular form about seven
miles in circumference, which is connected with the end of the great Taygetic
promontory by an isthmus about half a mile wide in a direct distance. Hence Taenarum
is correctly described by Strabo as an akte ekkeimene (viii. p. 363). Leake conjectures
with great probability that Matapan is merely another form of Metopon, which may
bave been the name given by the ancients to the southern extremity of the peninsula.
(Morea, vol. i. p. 301.) On either side of the isthmus, which connects the promontory
of Taenarum with that of Taygetus, is a bay, of which the one on the east is called
Porto Quaglio, corrupted into Kaio, and the one on the west Marinari or Marmari.
The name of Quaglio was given to the eastern bay by the Venetians, because it
was the last place in Europe at which the quails rested in the autumn before crossing
over to Crete and Cyrene. Porto Quaglio is one of the best harbours in Laconia,
being sheltered from the S. and SE.; it is nearly circular, with a narrow entrance,
a fine sandy bottom, and depth of water for large ships. Porto Marmari is described
as only a dangerous creek. In the Taenarian peninsula there are also two ports
on its eastern side, of which the northern, called Vathy, is a long narrow inlet
of the sea, while the southern, called Asomato or Kisternes, is very small and
ill sheltered. A quarter of a mile southward of the inner extremity of the last-mentioned
port, a low point of rock projects into the sea from the foot of the mountain,
which, according to the inhabitants of the peninsula, is the real C. Matapan.
The western side of the peninsula is rocky and harbourless.
The whole of the Taenarian peninsula was sacred to Poseidon, who appears
to have succeeded to the place of Helios, the more ancient god of the locality.
(Hom Hymn. in Apoll. 411.) At the extremity of this peninsula was the temple of
Poseidon, with an asylum, which enjoyed great celebrity down to a late period.
It seems to have been an ancient Achaean sanctuary before the Dorian conquest,
and to have continued to be the chief sacred place of the Perioeci and Helots.
The great earthquake, which reduced Sparta to a heap of ruins in B.C. 464, was
supposed to have been owing to the Lacedaemonians having torn away some suppliant
Helots from this sanctuary. (Thuc. i. 128, 133; Paus. iii. 25. § 4; Strab. viii.
p. 363; Eurip. Cycl. 292.) Near the sanctuary was a cavern, through which Hercules
is said to have dragged Cerberus to the upper regions. (Paus. Strab. ll. cc.;
Pind. Pyth. iv. 77; Taenariae fauces, Virg. Georg. iv. 467; Taenarus aperta umbris,
Lucan ix.36.) There is a slight difference between Strabo and Pausanias in the
position of the cave; the former placing it near the temple, which agrees with
present appearances (see below); the latter describing the cave itself as the
temple, before which stood a statue of Poseidon. Among the many dedicatory offerings
to Poseidon the most celebrated was the brazen statue of Arion seated on a dolphin,
which was still extant in the time of Pausanias. (Herod. i. 23, 24.) The temple
was plundered for the first time by the Aetolians. (Polyb. ix. 34.)
Taenarum is said to have taken its name from Taenarus, a son either
of Zeus or Icarius or Elatus. (Paus. iii. 14. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.; Schol. ad
Apoll. Rhod. i. 102.) Bochart derives the word from the Phoenician tinar rupes
(Geograph. Sacra, p. 459); and it is not improbable that the Phoenicians may have
had a settlement on the promontory at an early period.
Pausanias (iii. 25. § 4) mentions two harbours in connection with
the Taenarian promontory, called respectively Psamathus (Psamathous), and the
Harbour of Achilles (ho limen Achilleios). Scylax also mentions these two harbours,
and describes them as situated back to back (antipulos). Strabo (viii. p. 373)
speaks of the former of these two harbours under the name of Amathus (Amathous),
but omits to mention the Harbour of Achilles. It would appear that these two harbours
are the Porto Quaglio and the port of Vathy mentioned above, as these are the
two most important in the peninsula. Leake identifies Psamathus with Quaglio,
and the Harbour of Achilles with Vathy, but the French Commission reverse these
positions. We have, however, no doubt that Leake is correct; for the ancient remains
above the Porto Quaglio, the monastery on the heights, and the cultivated slopes
and levels, show that the Taenarian population has in all ages been chiefly collected
here. Moreover, no ancient writers speak of a town in connection with the Harbour
of Achilles, while Strabo and others describe Amathus or Psamathus as a polis.
(Steph. B. s. v. Psamathous; cf. Aeschin. Ep. 1; Plin. iv. 5. s. 8.) If we were
to take the description of Scylax literally, Psamathus would be Porto Quaglio,
and the Harbour of Achilles Porto Marmari; and accordingly, they are so identified
by Curtius; but it is impossible to believe that the dangerous creek of Marmari
is one of the two harbours so specifically mentioned both by Scylax and Pausanias.
The remains of the celebrated temple of Poseidon still exist at Asomato,
or Kisternes, close to C. Matapan on the eastern side. They now form part of a
ruined church; and the ancient Hellenic wall may be traced on one side of the
church. Leake observes that the church, instead of facing to the east, as Greek
churches usually do, faces southeastward, towards the head of the port, which
is likely to have been the aspect of the temple. No remains of columns have been
found. A few paces north-east of the church is a large grotto in the rock, which
appears to be the cave through which Hercules was supposed to have dragged Cerberus;
but there is no appearance of any subterranean descent, as had been already remarked
by Pausanias. In the neighbourhood there are several ancient cisterns and other
remains of antiquity.
There were celebrated marble quarries in the Taenarian peninsula.
(Strab. viii. p. 367.) Pliny describes the Taenarian marble as black (xxxvi. 18.
s. 29, 22. s. 43); but Sextus Empiricus (Pyrrh. Hypot. i. 130) speaks of a species
that was white when broken to pieces, though it appeared yellow in the mass. Leake
inquired in vain for these quarries.
At the distance of 40 stadia, or 5 English miles, north of the isthmus
of the Taenarian peninsula, was the town Taenabum or Taenaus, subsequently called
Caenepolis (Kainepolis, Paus. iii. 25. § 9; Kaine, Ptol. iii. 16. § 9; Plin. iv.
15. s. 16; Steph. B. s. v. Tainaros; the same town is probably mentioned by Strab.
viii. p. 360, under the corrupt form Kinaidion.) It contained a temple of Demeter
and another of Aphrodite, the latter near the sea. The modern village of Kyparisso
stands on the site of this town. Some ancient remains and inscriptions of the
time of the Antonines and their successors have been found here. On the door-posts
of a small ruined church are two inscribed quadrangular stelai, decorated with
mouldings above and below. One of the inscriptions is a decree of the Taenarii,
and the other is by the community of the Eleuthero-Lacones (to koinon ton Eleutherolakonon).
We have the testimony of Pausanias (iii. 21. § 7) that Caenepolis was one of the
Eleuthero-Laconian cities; and it would appear from the above-mentioned inscription
that the maritime Laconians, when they were delivered from the Spartan yoke, formed
a confederation and founded as their capital a city in the neighbourhood of the
revered sanctuary of Poseidon. The place was called the New Town (Caenepolis);
but, as we learn from the inscriptions, it continued to be also called by its
ancient name. For the inscriptions relating to Taenarum, see Bockh, Inscr. no.
1315-1317, 1321, 1322, 1389, 1393, 1483. (On the topography of the Taenarian peninsula,
see Leake, Morea, vol. i. p 290, seq., Peloponnesiaca, p. 175, seq.; Boblaye,
Recherches, &c., p. 89, seq.; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 277, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TEFTHRONI (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
A town of Laconia, situated upon the western side of the Laconian
gulf, 150 stadia from Cape Taenarum. It was said to have been founded by the Athenian
Teuthras. The chief deity worshipped here was Artemis Issoria. It had a fountain
called Naia. Its ruins exist at the village of Kotrones, and its citadel occupied
a small peninsula, called Skopos, Skopia or Skopopolis. The distance assigned
by Pausanias of 150 stadia from Teuthrone to Cape Taenarum is, according cording
to the French Commission, only from 8 to 10 stadia ill excess. Augustus made Teuthrone
one of the Eleuthero-Laconian towns.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TRINASSOS (Ancient city) GYTHIO
Trinasos, Trinassos. A town or rather fortress of Laconia, situated
upon a promontory near the head of the Laconian gulf, and 30 stadia above Gythium.
It is opposite to three small rocks, which gave their name to the place. The modern
village is for the same reason still called Trinisa (Ta Trinesa). There are considerable
remains of the ancient walls. The place was built in a semi-circular form, and
was not more than 400 or 500 yards in circuit.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VIES (Ancient city) VOION
Boeae. Bioai: Eth. Boiates. A town in the south of Laconia, situated between
the promontories Malea and Onugnathos, in the bay called after it Boeaticus Sinus
(Boiatikos kolpos). The town is said to have been founded by Boeus, one of the
Heraclidae, who led thither colonists from the neighbouring towns of Elis, Aphrodisias,
and Side. (Paus. iii. 22. § 11.) It afterwards belonged to the Eleuthero-Lacones,
and was visited by Pausanias, who mentions a temple of Apollo in the forum, and
temples of Aesculapius and of Sarapis and Isis elsewhere. At the distance of seven
stadia from the town there were ruins of a temple of Aesculapius and Hygieia.
The remains of Boeae may be seen at the head of the gulf, now called Vatika.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VOION (Municipality) LACONIA
Boeae (Bioai: Eth. Boiates), a town in the south of Laconia, situated
between the promontories Malea and Onugnathos, in the bay called after it Boeaticus
Sinus (Boiatikos kolpos). The town is said to have been founded by Boeus, one
of the Heraclidae, who led thither colonists from the neighbouring towns of Elis,
Aphrodisias, and Side. (Paus. iii. 22. § 11.) It afterwards belonged to the Eleuthero-Lacones,
and was visited by Pausanias, who mentions a temple of Apollo in the forum, and
temples of Aesculapius and of Sarapis and Isis elsewhere. At the distance of seven
stadia from the town there were ruins of a temple of Aesculapius and Hygieia.
The remains of Boeae may be seen at the head of the gulf, now called Vatika. (Paus.
i. 27. § 5, iii. 21. § 7, iii. 22. § 11, seq.; Scylax, p. 17; Strab. viii. p.
364; Polyb. v. 19; Plin. iv. 5. s. 9; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 98.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
VRYSSES (Ancient city) SPARTI
Bruseiai, Bruseai, Brusiai. A town of Laconia, SW. of Sparta, at the
foot of the ordinary exit from Mt. Taygetus. Its name occurs in Homer, but it
had dwindled down to a small village in the time of Pausanias, who mentions, however,
a temple of Dionysus at the place, into which women alone were permitted to enter,
and of which they performed the sacred rites. Leake discovered the site of Bryseae
at the village of Sinanbey near Sklavokori. He remarks that the marble from Sklavokhori,
which was presented by the Earl of Aberdeen to the British Museum, probably came
from the above-mentioned temple at Bryseae: it bears the name of two priestesses,
and represents various articles of female apparel. Leake found another marble
at Sinanbey, which is also in the British Museum.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
YPERTELEATON (Ancient sanctuary) ASSOPOS
Hyperteleatum (Huperteleaton), a place in the territory of the Laconian
Asopus, at the distance of 50 stadia from the latter town, containing a temple
of Asclepius. The French Commission discovered on the coast below the village
of Demonia some remains of the inclosure of this temple on a rock artificially
cut, with many tombs excavated in the rock, and at 500 steps from the temple,
nearer Demonia, a fine source of water. (Paus. iii. 22. § 10; Boblaye, Recherches,
&c. p. 98; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 168; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 294.)
ZARAX (Ancient city) ZARAKAS
(Zarex, Eth. Zarekios) A town on the eastern coast of Laconia, with
a good harbour, situated upon a promontory, which is a projection of Mt. Zarax.
Like Prasiae and some other places on this part of the Laconian coast, it passed
into the hands of the Argives in the time of the Macedonian supremacy; and this
was apparently the reason why it was destroyed by Cleonymus, the son of Cleomenes.
From this disaster it never recovered. Augustus made it one of the Eleuthero-Laconian
towns; but Pausanias found in it nothing to mention but a temple of Apollo at
the end of the harbour. It is now called Hieaka, which is evidently a corruption
of Zarax, and there are still ruins of the ancient town. The promontory bears
the same name, and the port, which is on its northern side, is described as small
but well sheltered. Pausanias says that Zarax was 100 stadia from Epidaurus Limera,
but this distance is too great.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EGILA (Ancient city) ANATOLIKI MANI
A town in Laconia, where Demeter had a temple. Aristomenes,
the Messenian leader, endeavoured on one occasion to seize a party of Laconian
women who were celebrating here the rites of the goddess. The attempt failed,
through the courageous resistance of the women, and Aristomenes himself was
taken prisoner. He was released, however, the same night, by Archidamea, the
priestess of Demeter, who had before this cherished an affection for him.
This text is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ELOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
A town in Laconia, on the coast, in a marshy situation, whence its name (helos=marsh). It was commonly said that the Spartan slaves called Helotes (Heilotes), were originally the Achaean inhabitants of this town who were reduced by the Dorian conquerors to slavery.
EPIDAVROS LIMIRA (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
Styled Limera, a town in Laconia, on the east coast, said to have been founded by Epidaurus in Argolis.
EPIDILION (Ancient city) MONEMVASSIA
A town on the southeastern coast of Laconia with a temple of Apollo which contained an image of the god, said to have been cast into the sea at Delos and to have drifted ashore at Epidelium.
ERMES (Ancient location) LACONIA
A district in the north of Laconia.
EVROTAS (River) PELOPONNISOS
The chief river in Laconia, on which Sparta stood, rises in Mount Boreum, in Arcadia, and flows into the Laconian Gulf
GERONTHRES (Ancient city) LACONIA
A town of Laconia, to the north of Helos, founded by the Achaeans long before the invasion of the Dorians and the Heraclidae, and subsequently colonized by the latter. When Pausanias visited Laconia, he found Geronthrae in possession of the Eleuthero-Lacones. It contained a temple and grove of Ares, and another temple of Apollo.
GYTHION (Ancient city) LACONIA
An ancient seaport town of Laconia, situated near the head of the Laconian Gulf, southwest of the mouth of the river Eurotas. In the Second Persian War, the Spartan fleet was stationed here, and here the Athenians under Tolmides burned the Spartan arsenal in B.C. 455.
ITYLOS (Ancient city) LACONIA
(Oitulos), also Tylus (Tulos). An ancient town in Laconia on the Messenian Gulf.
KARYES (Ancient city) LAKEDEMONA
A town in Laconia near the borders of Arcadia, originally belonged
to the territory of Tegea in Arcadia. Female figures in architecture that support
burdens are said to have been called Caryatides in token of the abject slavery
to which the women of Caryae were reduced by the Greeks, as a punishment for joining
the Persians at the invasion of Greece
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
KENI POLIS (Ancient city) ITYLO
A town near the promontory of Taenarus; its previous name was Taenarum.
KRANAI (Island) GYTHIO
Kranae. The island to which Paris first carried Helen from Peloponnesus. Its locality is uncertain, but some identify it with Cythera.
LAS (Ancient city) GYTHIO
An ancient town of Laconia, on the east side of the Laconian Gulf, ten stadia from the sea, and south of Gytheum ( Thuc.viii. 91).
MALEAS (Cape) LACONIA
A promontory on the southeast of Laconia, separating the Argolic and Laconic gulfs. At this point the sea is so rough as to give rise to the proverb, Cum ad Maleam deflexeris, obliviscere quae sunt domi (Mela, ii. 3).
MESSI (Ancient city) ITYLO
A town and harbour in Laconia, near Cape Taenarum.
OINOUS (Ancient city) INOUDAS
A town of Laconia, supposed to have been situated on the river of the same name flowing near Sellasia
PARNONAS (Mountain) PELOPONNISOS
A mountain which separated Laconia from the Arcadian district Tegeatis. Its height is about 6500 feet.
PELLANA (Mycenean settlement) PELANA
Often called Pellana, a town in Lucania on the Eurotas, northwest of Sparta.
SELLASIA (Ancient city) INOUDAS
A town in Laconia, north of Sparta, near the river Oenus. Here was fought a great battle between Cleomenes III. and Antigonus Doson in B.C. 221, resulting in the defeat of the former.
(Sparte, Dor. Sparta), also called Lacedaemon (Lakedaimon).
The capital of Laconica and the chief city of the Peloponnesus, was situated
on the right bank of the Eurotas (Iri), about twenty miles from the sea. It
stood on a plain which contained within it several rising grounds and hills.
It was bounded on the east by the Eurotas, on the northwest by the small river
Oenus (Kelesina), and on the southeast by the small river Tisia (Magula), both
of which streams fell into the Eurotas. The plain in which Sparta stood was
shut in on the east by Mount Menelaieum, and on the west by Mount Taygetus;
whence the city is called by Homer "the hollow Lacedaemon." It was
of a circular form, about six miles in circumference, and consisted of several
distinct quarters, which were originally separate villages, and which were never
united into one regular town. Its site is occupied by the modern villages of
Magula and Psykhiko; and the principal modern town in the neighbourhood is Mistra,
which lies about two miles to the west on Mount Taygetus.
During the flourishing times of Greek independence, Sparta
was never surrounded by walls, since the bravery of its citizens, and the difficulty
of access to it, were supposed to render such defences needless. It was first
fortified by the tyrant Nabis; but it did not possess regular walls until the
time of the Romans. Sparta, unlike most Greek cities, had no proper Acropolis,
but this name was given to one of the steepest hills of the town, on the summit
of which stood the Temple of Athene Poliuchus, or Chalcioecus.
Five distinct quarters of the city are mentioned: (1) Pitane
(Pitane), which appears to have been the most important part of the city, and
in which was situated the Agora, containing the council-house of the Senate,
and the offices of the public magistrates. It was also surrounded by various
temples and other public buildings. Of these, the most splendid was the Persian
Stoa or portico, originally built of the spoils taken in the Persian War, and
enlarged and adorned at later times. A part of the Agora was called the Chorus
or dancing-place, in which the Spartan youths performed dances in honour of
Apollo. (2) Limnae (Limnai), a suburb of the city, on the banks of the Eurotas,
northeast of Pitane, was originally a hollow spot covered with water. (3) Mesoa
or Messoa (Mesoa, Messoa), also by the side of the Eurotas, southeast of the
preceding, containing the Dromus and the Platanistas, which was a spot nearly
surrounded with water, and so called from the plane-trees growing there. (4)
Cynosura (Kunosoura), in the southwest of the city, and south of Pitane. (5)
Aegidae (Aigeidai), in the northwest of the city, and west of Pitane.
The two principal streets of Sparta ran from the Agora to
the extreme end of the city: these were, (1) Aphetae or Aphetais (Aphetai, Aphetais
sc. hodos), extending in a southeasterly direction, past the temple of Dictynna
and the tombs of the Eurypontidae; and (2) Skias (Skias), running nearly parallel
to the preceding one, but farther to the east, and which derived its name from
an ancient place of assembly, of a circular form, called Skias. The most important
remains of ancient Sparta are the ruins of the theatre, which was near the Agora.
Sparta is said to have been founded by Lacedaemon, a son
of Zeus and Taygete, who married Sparta, the daughter of Eurotas, and called
the city after the name of his wife. His son Amyclas is said to have been the
founder of Amyclae, which was for a long time a more important town than Sparta
itself. In the mythical period, Argos was the chief city in Peloponnesus, and
Sparta is represented as subject to it. Here reigned Menelaus, the younger brother
of Agamemnon; and by the marriage of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, with Hermione,
the daughter of Menelaus, the two kingdoms of Argos and Sparta became united.
The Dorian conquest of the Peloponnesus, which, according to tradition, took
place thirty years after the Trojan War, made Sparta the capital of the country.
Laconica fell to the share of the two sons of Aristodemus, Eurysthenes and Procles,
who took up their residence at Sparta, and ruled over the kingdom conjointly.
The old inhabitants of the country maintained themselves at Amyclae, which was
not conquered for a long time. After the complete subjugation of the country
we find three distinct classes in the population: the Dorian conquerors, who
resided in the capital, and who were called Spartiatae or Spartans; the Perioeci
or old Achaean inhabitants, who became tributary to the Spartans, and possessed
no political rights; and the Helots, who were also a portion of the old Achaean
inhabitants, but were reduced to a state of slavery. From various causes the
Spartans became distracted by intestine quarrels, till at length Lycurgus, who
belonged to the royal family, was selected by all parties to give a new constitution
to the State. The date of Lycurgus is uncertain; but it is impossible to place
it later than B.C. 825.
The constitution of Lycurgus laid the foundation of Sparta's
greatness; yet this constitution, traditionally ascribed to Lycurgus, is not
to be regarded as wholly due to him. It represents the union of three distinct
principles: the monarchical principle was represented by the kings, the aristocracy
by the Senate, and the democratical element by the assembly of the people, and
subsequently by their representatives, the ephors. The kings had originally
to perform the common functions of the kings of the Heroic Age. They were high-priests,
judges, and leaders in war; but in all of these departments they were in course
of time superseded more or less. As judges they retained only a particular branch
of jurisdiction, that referring to the succession of property. As military commanders
they were to some extent restricted and watched by commissioners sent by the
Senate; the functions of high-priest were curtailed least, perhaps because least
obnoxious. In compensation for the loss of power, the kings enjoyed great honours,
both during their life and after their death. The Senate (gerousia) consisted
of thirty members, one from each obe (oba), all elected except the two kings,
who were ex officio members, and represented each his own obe. In their functions
they replaced the old council of the nobles as a sort of privy council to the
kings, but their power was greater, since the votes of the kings were of no
greater weight than those of other senators; they had the right of originating
and discussing all measures before they could be submitted to the decision of
the popular assembly; they had, in conjunction (later) with the ephors, to watch
over the due observance of the laws and institutions; and they were judges in
all criminal cases, without being bound by any written code. For all this they
were not responsible, holding their office for life.
But with all these powers the elders formed no real aristocracy.
They were not chosen either for property qualification or for noble birth. The
Senate was open to the poorest citizen, who during sixty years had been obedient
to the laws and zealous in the performance of his duties. The mass of the people--that
is, the Spartans of pure Doric descent --formed the sovereign power of the State.
The popular assembly consisted of every Spartan of thirty years of age, and
of unblemished character; only those were excluded who had not the means of
contributing their portion to the syssitia. They met at stated times to decide
on all important questions brought before them, after a previous discussion
in the Senate. They had no right of amendment, but only that of simple approval
or rejection, which was given in the rudest form possible, by shouting. The
popular assembly, however, had neither frequent nor very important occasions
for directly exerting their sovereign power. Their chief activity consisted
in delegating it; hence arose the importance of the ephors, who were the representatives
of the popular element of the constitution. The five ephors answer in many points
to the Roman tribunes of the people. Their appointment is included by Herodotus
among the institutions of Lycurgus, but it is probable that Aristotle is right
in dating these later, from the reign of Theopompus. Their appointment was perhaps
a concession to the people, at first as overseers of the markets and as magistrates
who might check illegal oppression by kings or great men. Subsequently they
absorbed most of the power in the State. To Lycurgus was ascribed also a prohibition
to use written laws, or to have any coinage but iron: but these traditions must
refer to later customs, since there were neither coins nor written laws in Greece
as early as Lycurgus.
With reference to their subjects, the few Spartans formed
a most decided aristocracy. On the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians,
part of the ancient inhabitants of the country, under name of the Perioeci (Perioikoi),
were allowed indeed to retain their personal liberty, but lost all civil rights,
and were obliged to pay to the State a rent for the land that was left them.
But a great part of the old inhabitants were reduced to a state of perfect slavery,
different from that of the slaves of Athens and Rome, and more similar to the
villanage of the feudal ages. These were called Helots (heilotai). They were
allotted, with patches of land, to individual members of the ruling class. They
tilled the land, and paid a fixed rent to their masters, not, as Perioeci, to
the State. The Spartans formed, as it were, an army of invaders in an enemy's
country; their city was a camp, and every man a soldier. At Sparta the citizen
only existed for the State; he had no interest but the State's, and no property
but what belonged to the State. It was a fundamental principle of the constitution
that all citizens were entitled to the enjoyment of an equal portion of the
common property. This was done in order to secure to the commonwealth a large
number of citizens and soldiers free from labour for their sustenance, and able
to devote their whole time to warlike exercises, in order thus to keep up the
ascendency of Sparta over her Perioeci and Helots. The Spartans were to be warriors,
and nothing but warriors. Therefore, not only all mechanical labour was thought
to degrade them; not only was husbandry despised and neglected, and commerce
prevented, or at least impeded, by prohibitive laws and by the use of iron money;
but also the nobler arts and sciences were so effectually stifled that Sparta
is a blank in the history of the arts and literature of Greece. The State took
care of a Spartan from his cradle to his grave, and superintended his education
in the minutest points; and this was not confined to his youth, but extended
throughout his whole life. The syssitia, or, as they were called at Sparta,
phiditia, the common meals, may be regarded as an educational institution; for
at these meals subjects of general interest were discussed and political questions
debated. The youths and boys used to eat separately from the men, in their own
divisions.
Sparta gradually extended her sway over the greater part
of the Peloponnesus. In B.C. 743 the Spartans attacked Messenia, and after a
war of twenty years subdued this country, 723. In 685 the Messenians again took
up arms, but at the end of seventeen years were again completely subdued; and
their country from this time forward became an integral portion of Laconia.
After the close of the Second Messenian War the Spartans continued their conquests
in Peloponnesus. They defeated the Tegeans, and wrested the district of Thyreae
from the Argives. At the time of the Persian invasion they were confessedly
the first people in Greece, and to them was granted by unanimous consent the
chief command in the war. But after the final defeat of the Persians the haughtiness
of Pausanias disgusted most of the Greek States, particularly the Ionians, and
led them to transfer the supremacy to Athens (477). From this time the power
of Athens steadily increased, and Sparta possessed little influence outside
of the Peloponnesus. The Spartans, however, made several attempts to check the
rising greatness of Athens, and their jealousy of the latter led at length to
the Peloponnesian War (431). This war ended in the overthrow of Athens, and
the restoration of the supremacy of Sparta over the rest of Greece (404). But
the Spartans did not retain this supremacy more than thirty years. Their decisive
defeat by the Thebans under Epaminondas at the battle of Leuctra (371) gave
the Spartan power a shock from which it never recovered; and the restoration
of the Messenians to their country two years afterwards completed the humiliation
of Sparta. Thrice was the Spartan territory invaded by the Thebans, and the
Spartan women saw for the first time the watch-fires of an enemy's camp. The
Spartans now finally lost their supremacy over Greece, but no other Greek state
succeeded to their power; and about thirty years afterwards the greater part
of Greece was obliged to yield to Philip of Macedon. The Spartans, however,
kept aloof from the Macedonian conqueror, and refused to take part in the Asiatic
expedition of his son, Alexander the Great.
Under this later Macedonian king the power of Sparta declined
still further. The simple institutions of Lycurgus were abandoned, and little
by little luxury crept into the State. The number of citizens diminished, and
the landed property became vested in a few families. Agis endeavoured to restore
the ancient institutions of Lycurgus, but he perished in the attempt (240).
Cleomenes III., who began to reign 236, was more successful. He succeeded in
putting the ephors to death, and overthrowing the existing government (225);
and he then made a redistribution of the landed property, and augmented the
number of the Spartan citizens by admitting some of the Perioeci to this honour.
His reforms infused new blood into the State, and for a short time he carried
on war with success against the Achaeans. But Aratus, the general of the Achaeans,
called in the assistance of Antigonus Doson, the king of Macedonia, who defeated
Cleomenes at the decisive battle of Sellasia (221), and followed up his success
by the capture of Sparta. Sparta now sank into insignificance, and was ruled
by a succession of native tyrants, till at length it was compelled to abolish
its peculiar institutions, and to join the Achaean League. Shortly afterwards
it fell, with the rest of Greece, under the Roman power.
This text is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TAINARON (Cape) ANATOLIKI MANI
Now Cape Matapan; a promontory in Laconia, forming the southerly
point of the Peloponnesus, on which stood a celebrated temple of Poseidon, possessing
an inviolable asylum. A little to the north of the temple and the harbour of Achilleus
was a town also called Taenarum or Taenarus, and at a later time Caenepolis. On
the promontory was a cave, through which Heracles is said to have dragged Cerberus
to the upper world. Here also was a statue of Arion seated on a dolphin, since
he is said to have landed at this spot after his miraculous preservation by a
dolphin. In the time of the Romans there were celebrated marble quarries on the
promontory.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
At oracles of the dead (psuchomanteia) the souls of deceased persons were evoked in order to give the information desired. Thus, in Homer ( Od.xi), Odysseus betakes himself to the entrance of the lower world to question the spirit of the seer Tiresias. Oracles of this kind were especially common in places where it was supposed there was an entrance to the lower world; as at the city of Cichyrus in Epirus (where there was an Acherusian lake as well as the rivers of Acheron and Cocytus, bearing the same names as those of the world below), at the promontory of Taenarum in Laconia, at Heraclea in Pontus, and at Lake Avernus, near Cumae, in Italy. At most of them oracles were also given in dreams; but there were some in which the inquirer was in a waking condition when he conjured up the spirits whom he wished to question.
This extract is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Apr 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TAYGETOS (Mountain) PELOPONNISOS
(Taugetos) or Taygetum (Taugeton) or Taygeta (ta Taugeta). A lofty range of mountains, of a wild and savage character, separating Laconia and Messenia, and extending from the frontiers of Arcadia down to the Promontorium Taenarum.
THERAPNI (Ancient city) SPARTI
A town in Laconia, on the left bank of the Eurotas and a little above Sparta, celebrated in mythology as the birthplace of Castor and Pollux. Menelaus and Helen were said to be buried here.
SPARTI (Ancient city) LACONIA
City of Laconia
in southern Peloponnese.
Sparta, also called Lacedaemon, was the capital of the province of
Laconia in southern Peloponnese
and one of the leading cities of Greece.
In the Homeric world, Laconia
was the kingdom of Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon (himself king of Argos,
or of Mycenae) and husband
of Helen. At the beginning of his Histories of the Persian Wars, Herodotus, talking
about the relationship between Croesus, king of Lydia
in the middle of the VIth century B. C., and Greece,
presents Sparta and Athens
as the two most powerful cities of Greece,
Sparta leading the Dorians, described as a migrant people eventually settled in
Peloponnese, and Athens
the Ionians, presented as a people that always lived in the land (the autochtons
as they liked to call themselves, that is, the ones born from the land itself).
Most of the history of the Vth and IVth centuries, leading eventually
to the rise of the Macedonian Empire, may be viewed as a struggle between Athens
and Sparta for leadership over Greece.
The Peloponnesian War, whose chronicle makes up Thucydides' Histories, was the
climax of this struggle.
In the time of Socrates and Plato, Sparta enjoyed a rather unique
constitution and way of life which fascinated, or at least questioned, many Greeks,
including Plato and above all Xenophon. This fascination, under various forms,
lasted till our day. The origin of Sparta's constitution was ascribed to Lycurgus,
a half legendary lawgiver who, if he ever existed, should have lived around the
Xth century B. C. Lycurgus was supposed to have received the constitution of Sparta,
a document called the Rhetra, from Apollo himself at Delphi.
But modern historians doubt Lycurgus ever existed and would rather ascribe the
origin of the constitution that existed in Sparta in the Vth century to the second
half of the VIIth century B. C.
No matter what, the most striking features of this constitution were:
•Its aristocratic, or more properly, oligarchic, and war-geared
regime, with a limited class of full-right citizens, the “Equals”
(homoioi in Greek), whose role was mostly to defend the city in case of war, and
among whom were chosen each year five ephors in charge of most of the day to day
administration of the city, under the supervision of a “Council of the Elders”
(gerousia), a body of 28 citizens aged over 60 elected for life by the assembly
of the citizens by acclamation. The city also had two hereditary kings from two
different families, endowed with mostly religious functions but also involved
in political life through their membership in the Council of the Elders, one of
whom was chosen as commander in chief in case of war.
•Its reliance on a form of slavery for survival: the citizens
were not supposed to work or cultivate the earth. This role was attributed to
a special class of enslaved people known as the “Helots”, mostly made
up of local people subjected by the Spartans, especially neighboring Messenians.
In between the Equals and the Helots, was a population of half-grade citizens
enjoying freedom but not citizenship, living in the countryside and surrounding
villages as farmers, craftsmen or merchants, and participating in the army in
separate units.
•Its “communist”-like system of ownership: land
and Helots were owned by the state, not by the citizens. Land was alloted among
citizens in lots called “kleroi”, which were not inherited, but were
supposed to go back to the state at the death of their “owner” to
be reassigned to another citizen (though, over time, the system was more and more
often bypassed and inequality eventually prevailed among the “Equals”).
•Its special program of education for the citizens, the agoge,
which lasted from the age of 7 to the age of 30 in common quarters under the supervision
of the state, and was a prerequisite to enjoy the rights of a citizen. It focused
primarily on physical education and the art of war, but there were also specific
provisions for women and strict rules about marriage and procreation. It included
occasional raids against the Helots in which future citizens were allowed to kill
slaves, to prepare them for war in actual conditions. The last step of this education,
reserved to the best ones, was known as the cryptia (from the Greek word meaning
“hidden”, “secret”) and consisted in living alone for
one year in the countryside and neighboring moutains without being seen by anyone
but with the right to kill Helots. Its daily common meals, known as syssitia,
reserved to citizens but for them mandatory, and to which they were required to
bring their share lest they lose their citizenship.
All in all, the terms that best describe Sparta are austerty, frugality,
discipline: the city was never adorned with beautiful temples (at the beginning
of his history of the war between Sparta and Athens,
Thucydides remarks that, were Sparta to be destroyed, future generations centuries
later, judging by the remains of its buildings, would never imagine how powerful
the city was, whereas were the same fate to happen to Athens,
by the same criterion, one might judge it much more powerful it ever was !); it
never fostered great poets and writers, nor great orators, as did Athens, and
was rather known for its concise style (hence the word “laconic”,
from the name of Sparta's district, Laconia).
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1999), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
